It's still different. Needing to go to a specialized store with trained personnel to buy painkillers has a completely different appeal than just tossing bottles of painkillers into your cart next to milk and candy.

I think that's the point the parent is making, there's a lot more friction involved, you'd have to get out of your way to get large amount of drugs (amount in one box in the US is just way more than what you'd get in e.g. France).

E.g. the box of aspirin from the supermarket may have 500 pills: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-Pain-Relief-Aspirin-Coated...

But can you buy a box of 1000 aspirin tablets? That would be $23 in the US: https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-ibuprofen-tablets-200mg-...

That link is for ibuprofen, not aspirin.

Aspirin is dirt cheap in the U.S.

the deal isn't the price, but the quantity: if you need 1,000 pills of any medication, you should be under medical supervision/follow-ups, not buying them like they were groceries.

Generally, sure. As for aspirin, though, if you're a couple on a common low-dose daily regimen, that's 730 pills in just 1 year without a single head or body ache.